First Race of Open Master 2005 in Lonato

The MS KART racing team entered the 2005 season with great results in the first race of the Italian Open Masters Championship in Lonato on 24. – 27. March 2005. The team ace – the Dutch Robert Dirks – won the final of the ICC 125 class in a dominant way. After him there was the Italian driver Francesco Laudato with Birel chassis on the second place and Nico Glaudemans also with Birel finished third. Robert won with with a jump of around 300 metres which was an earth-shattering result for all the competitors!

Our second team driver from Holland Kevin Leijtens had also a very good run. For a long time he was driving along the 5th position in the final. Finally he unfortunatelly did not keep contact and speed with the leading drivers and finished 11th. However, in the course of the whole race Kevin made a very good achievement – he was two times 4th in the qualification heats and so he started from second range in the final.

This time our third team driver Jirka Bečička unfortunatelly did not go very well. Because of some mistakes he came out of the track for several times and so he finished the race on the 23rd position. The only excuse is that Jiri in comparison the both other team drivers did not make any practice before the race.

However, Robert Dirks made a perfect achievement and with enourmous commitment in the final heat he brought our MS KART chassis to the great victory ! We all congratulate Robert and wish that there are more such results this year.

Milan Šimák

Perspective plan of the MS KART Racing Team for 2005

At the end of 2004/beginning of 2005 the factory MS KART racing team concluded contracts with drivers for the sporting season 2005 and created a preliminary plan for 2005.

The team management succeeded, with cooperation of our business representative in the Netherlands, Mr. Jan Cramer, to obtain one of the best drivers of our days – the Dutch Robert Dirks – European champion 2002, world champion 2003, and the 5th from the World Championship 2004. 
Our team will also be represented in the same class by Jiří Bečička from the Czech Republic, which reached in the past already several excellent results with the MS KART mark. 
As third driver, we engaged a young and talented driver Kevin Leytens from the Netherlands, which made his debut last year in the European Championship. His performance indicated that he could become a very good driver in the future.

All three drivers will make several testing sessions on Italian tracks, on which the Open Masters, European Championships, and World Cup races will be held. After the completion of these tests, they will attend the series of five Italia Open Masters races:

On 15 May, the first event of the European Championship takes place in Angerville (France). Dirks with Bečička will take part in the most prestigious class Super-ICC, designed for the drivers with the superlicence. The young Leytens will take part in the ICC class with the category B licence.

The European Championship series is composed of three races of the ICC class, and of only two races of the Super-ICC class. The third part of the series of the prestigious category Super-ICC is organised as an independent race of the World Cup, this time on the track in Sarno (Italy). The winner of this race is then practically deemed as World Champion, as in the classes Super ICC and ICC the World Championship is not organised. For this reason drivers from the whole world take part on the European Championship races.

In the meantime the whole team will visit on 26 June Mariembourg (Belgium), where the second race of the European Championship will be held.

With the experience gathered in the last year, and with the team of very experienced drivers and one talented young driver, all of us in our team expect a successful season 2005. 
This is supported also with the fact that we have concluded already for two years a contract with the TM Company, which produces today the most powerful engines 125 ccm. These engines are adapted for races and serviced by the Italian factory technician, Mr. Franco Galiff. 
During the last two years, the MS KART Company develops a great effort in the development of new chassis, and invests a great amount of resources into the race development department. Together with the support of a few of sponsors of the racing team, it tends to compete with the best Italian producers, and each point in the most prestigious series increases the position of the brand MS KART on the world scale.

The result of the strategic development activities is the last developed and manufactured prototype of MS SUPERKART kart with a 250 ccm engine. This kart was developed in cooperation with the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, and in the present time students of the Technical University in Prague are working on the design of the bodywork. First tests with the prototype were performed on the automobile track in Most. After tests in an aerodynamic tunnel and mounting of a new TM 250 engine, further driving tests will be performed in the way to allow its employment already in the European Championship and European Cup in Superkart series. The factory prototype will be driven by the vice champion of Europe from 2003 Michal Barták from the Czech Republic. This driver benefits from the factory support of MS KART Company in 2005.

Now we can already wish many sporting experiences and enthusiasm of the victories of the drivers, driving karts produced in Prachatice by the MS KART Company.